Towards Zero

Lady Tressilian looked at her sharply.

‘What’s in your mind, my dear?’

‘I was wondering—’ She stopped, then went on: ‘It—it seems so unlike Nevile—this letter! You don’t think that, for some reason, Audrey wants this—this meeting?’

‘Why should she?’ said Lady Tressilian sharply. ‘After Nevile left her she went to her aunt, Mrs Royde, at the Rectory, and had a complete breakdown. She was absolutely like a ghost of her former self. Obviously it hit her terribly hard. She’s one of those quiet self-contained people who feel things intensely.’

Mary moved uneasily.

‘Yes, she is intense. A queer girl in many ways …’

‘She suffered a lot … Then the divorce went through and Nevile married the girl, and little by little Audrey began to get over it. Now she’s almost back to her old self. You can’t tell me she wants to rake up old memories again?’

Mary said with gentle obstinacy: ‘Nevile says she does.’

The old lady looked at her curiously.

‘You’re extraordinarily obstinate about this, Mary. Why? Do you want to have them here together?’

Mary Aldin flushed. ‘No, of course not.’

Lady Tressilian said sharply:

‘It’s not you who have been suggesting all this to Nevile?’

‘How can you be so absurd?’

‘Well, I don’t believe for a minute it’s really his idea. It’s not like Nevile.’ She paused a minute, then her face cleared. ‘It’s the 1st of May tomorrow, isn’t it? Well, on the 3rd Audrey is coming to stay with the Darlingtons at Esbank. It’s only twenty miles away. Write and ask her to come over and lunch here.’

May 5th

‘Mrs Strange, m’lady.’

Audrey Strange came into the big bedroom, crossed the room to the big bed, stooped down and kissed the old lady and sat down in the chair placed ready for her.

‘Nice to see you, my dear,’ said Lady Tressilian.

‘And nice to see you,’ said Audrey.

There was a quality of intangibility about Audrey Strange. She was of medium height with very small hands and feet. Her hair was ash-blonde and there was very little colour in her face. Her eyes were set wide apart and were a clear pale grey. Her features were small and regular, a straight little nose set in a small oval pale face. With such colouring, with a face that was pretty but not beautiful, she had nevertheless a quality about her that could not be denied nor ignored and that drew your eyes to her again and again. She was a little like a ghost, but you felt at the same time that a ghost might be possessed of more reality than a live human being …

She had a singularly lovely voice; soft and clear like a small silver bell.

For some minutes she and the old lady talked of mutual friends and current events. Then Lady Tressilian said:

‘Besides the pleasure of seeing you, my dear, I asked you to come because I’ve had rather a curious letter from Nevile.’

Audrey looked up. Her eyes were wide, tranquil and calm. She said:

‘Oh yes?’

‘He suggests—a preposterous suggestion, I call it!—that he and—and Kay should come here in September. He says he wants you and Kay to be friends and that you yourself think it a good idea?’

She waited. Presently Audrey said in her gentle placid voice:

‘Is it—so preposterous?’

‘My dear—do you really want this to happen?’

Audrey was silent again for a minute or two, then she said gently:

‘I think, you know, it might be rather a good thing.’

‘You really want to meet this—you want to meet Kay?’

‘I do think, Camilla, that it might—simplify things.’

‘Simplify things!’ Lady Tressilian repeated the words helplessly.

Audrey spoke very softly.

‘Dear Camilla. You have been so good. If Nevile wants this—’

‘A fig for what Nevile wants!’ said Lady Tressilian robustly. ‘Do you want it, that’s the question?’

A little colour came in Audrey’s cheeks. It was the soft delicate glow of a sea shell.

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I do want it.’

‘Well,’ said Lady Tressilian. ‘Well—’

She stopped.

‘But, of course,’ said Audrey. ‘It is entirely your choice. It is your house and—’

Lady Tressilian shut her eyes.

‘I’m an old woman,’ she said. ‘Nothing makes sense any more.’

‘But of course—I’ll come some other time. Any time will suit me.’

‘You’ll come in September as you always do,’ snapped Lady Tressilian. ‘And Nevile and Kay shall come too. I may be old but I can adapt myself, I suppose, as well as anyone else, to the changing phases of modern life. Not another word, that’s settled.’

She closed her eyes again. After a minute or two she said, peering through half-shut lids at the young woman sitting beside her: ‘Well, got what you want?’

Audrey started.

‘Oh, yes, yes. Thank you.’